2016 News

Outgoing Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx signed a proclamation calling on the North Carolina Department of Transportation to name a portion of I-85 in Durham County, the "John Hope Franklin Memorial Highway." Franklin was a leading scholar of African American history and the first African American to serve as president of the AHA. The request still requires approval from NCDOT.

Gregory Downs, Eric Foner, and Kate Masur have written aNew York Times op-ed urging President Obama to create a National Park Service monument to Reconstruction in Beaufort, SC. In November, AHA sent a letter to US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell in support of the monument.

Elizabeth Lehfeldt (Vice President of the AHA's Teaching Division and Professor of History at Cleveland State University) responded to Nicholas Kristof's op-ed in The New York Times, "The Dangers of Echo Chambers on College Campuses." In An Open Letter and Invitation to Nicholas Kristof she writes, "come visit me and my students at an urban, public university where many of my students are Pell-eligible, working multiple jobs, raising families, all while being among the most engaged and diligent students I have ever had the pleasure of teaching....They are living, breathing students and they have a lot to teach you."

Antoinette Burton, chair of the AHA's 2018 annual meeting Program Committee (Washington, DC, January 4-7) and member of the Committee on Committees, has been selected by the Office of the President of the University of Illinois System to serve as a year-long fellow. In this role, Burton will make contributions to the future of higher education in Illinois and bring her research in the history of women and gender in transnational contexts to strategic university initiatives. The Presidential Fellows Program recruits distinguished faculty in the U of I system advance the institution's "long legacy of leadership in the arts and humanities."

AHA members, including John Fabian Witt serving as chair, were part of a Yale University Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming. The 12-person group, which included many historians, released its report outlining procedures for renaming buildings on Yale’s campus, spurred by recent calls to rename Calhoun College. The committee’s report outlines a set of principles, grounded in historical memory and historical context, that should guide renaming decisions. Calling history “one of the forms of knowledge at the core” of the university’s mission, the report sought to balance the need for change without erasing the past.

Marie Myung-Ok Lee recently argued in an article in Quartz magazine that "History classes are our best hope for teaching Americans to question fake news and Donald Trump." Despite the need for the skills history classes teach, such as the ability to "question the stories that are handed down to us," Lee cites data from the AHA on the decline in history majors and interviews executive director Jim Grossman on the situation. She suggests that in the wake of an election "plagued by misinformation," and with fake news increasing, history education is vital.

Ibram X. Kendi, assistant professor of African American History at the University of Florida, has won the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction for Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Nation Books). Historians Heather Ann Thompson and Andrés Reséndez were named finalists for the prize.

AHA members are using their historical perspective to build solidarity in the wake of the US presidential election. The Jewish Journal published a statement from over 250 Jewish scholars, including many AHA members, expressing concern about "the racial, ethnic, gender-based, and religious hatred" evidenced by Donald Trump during his campaign and since his election to the Presidency. The statement calls for unity to defend "the constitutional rights and liberties of all Americans."

In response to the recent presidential election, AHA member Jim Downs (associate professor of history at Connecticut College) has penned an article for Slate Magazine on the history of protests in the United States.

An unusually bitter and divisive election has been followed by continuing evidence of polarization to the point of harassment seldom seen in recent American history. Historians can say with confidence that this is not our nation's finest hour. Language previously relegated to the margins has moved out of the shadows, emboldening elements of American society less interested in a more perfect union than in division and derision.

Historians should, as part of our work, explore the multiple factors that have shaped this new terrain. The American Historical Association encourages that scholarship, but at the same time condemns the language and harassment that have charred the American landscape in recent weeks.

The AHA is chartered by the US Congress to promote the study of history in the United States. To advance this goal, the association has agreed on shared standards, including an emphasis on mutual respect and reasoned discourse-the ongoing conversation among historians holding diverse points of view and who learn from each other. A commitment to such discourse-balancing fair and honest criticism with inclusive practices and openness to different ideas-makes possible the fruitful exchange of views, opinions, and knowledge.

The American Historical Association reaffirms its commitment to mutual respect, reasoned discourse, and appreciation for humanity in its full variety. We will strive to demonstrate these values in all aspects of practice, including in our roles as teachers, researchers, and citizens.

With a 14-0 vote, the Texas State Board of Education has denied the adoption of a proposed Mexican American studies textbook denounced by historians for numerous factual and interpretive errors. In September, the AHA, with the assistance of Teaching Division Councilor Trinidad Gonzales (South Texas Coll.) and association member Emilio Zamora (Univ. of Texas, Austin), sent a letter to the Chair of the Board expressing its concern about the textbook. The TBOE has communicated its gratitude to the AHA for providing appropriate professional expertise essential to the Board's ability to properly evaluate the submission.

The American Historical Association (AHA) has appointed Alex Lichtenstein as editor of the American Historical Review (AHR), beginning August 2017. "Professor Lichtenstein brings energy and insight to the editorial direction of the American Historical Review," AHA president Pat Manning said of the appointment. "The AHA Council looks forward to working with him, the journal staff, and [the AHR editorial] board in charting the future of the premier historical journal." Read more on AHA Today.

Rachel G. Fuchs, a longtime AHA member who served on the 2016 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize Committee, passed away on October 15, 2016. A respected scholar of French women's history, Fuchs was Regents' Professor and Distinguished Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University. She also served as president of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association in 2008.

Daina Ramey Berry, associate professor of history and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses the practice of collecting body parts of deceased slaves as "trophies" or heirlooms, and how returning these relics can help restore healing and justice.

AHA members Gregory Downs (UC Davis) and Kate Masur (Northwestern Univ.) penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post calling for the creation of a new national monument to Reconstruction in Beaufort County, SC "so that Americans can confront the dramatic victories and bitter defeats of a crucial time in our nation's history."

Peter Kastor, a professor of history and American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis, was invited to discuss political debate history on a recent episode of St. Louis on the Air. Kastor also serves as principal investigator for a major digital archive entitled "Creating a Federal Government."

After businessman, author, and media personality Dave Ramsey declared taking out a student loan for a history degree a "stupid" decision, historian and AHA member John Fea responded on his blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home, reminding readers that the history degree's low economic value is a fallacy and that it prepares students for success in many careers.

Antoinette Burton, professor of history at the University of Illinois and chair of the 2018 Annual Meeting Program Committee, was interviewed about the importance of the humanities on MJs Minute, a video column for Illinois's News-Gazette.

AHA Teaching Division Councilor Trinidad Gonzales (South Texas Coll.) and AHA member Emilio Zamora (Univ. of Texas, Austin) are part of a committee that has released a reportciting numerous factual inaccuracies and generally poor historical work in a textbook proposed to meet Texas’s Mexican American Studies standard in high schools. Drawing on the AHA’s Guidelines for the Preparation, Evaluation, and Selection of History Textbooksand the Association’s Statement on Standards of Professional Conductto evaluate Mexican-American Heritage, the committee, convened by a member of the Texas State Board of Education, found a lack of “critical dialogue with current scholarship,” which resulted in “a polemic attempting to masquerade as a textbook.” The AHA remains unaware of any role played by professional historians in writing the text; apparently the publisher ruled out participation by scholars of Mexican descent because of concerns that they would be “biased” (quoting news reports). Here at 400 A St. SE we wonder how many of our colleagues born and raised in the United States have authored US history textbooks tainted by their “bias” as Americans.

The committee, convened by Ruben Cortez, the 2nd District representative to the Texas State Board of Education, released its report at a press conference on Tuesday, September 6. AHA members Gonzales and Zamora testified in front of the Texas State Board of Education on September 13. You can watch the hearing online.

AHA Teaching Division Councilor Trinidad Gonzales (South Texas Coll.) and AHA member Emilio Zamora (Univ. of Texas, Austin) are part of a committee that has released a reportciting numerous factual inaccuracies and generally poor historical work in a textbook proposed to meet Texas’s Mexican American Studies standard in high schools. Drawing on the AHA’s Guidelines for the Preparation, Evaluation, and Selection of History Textbooksand the Association’s Statement on Standards of Professional Conductto evaluate Mexican-American Heritage, the committee, convened by a member of the Texas State Board of Education, found a lack of “critical dialogue with current scholarship,” which resulted in “a polemic attempting to masquerade as a textbook.” The AHA remains unaware of any role played by professional historians in writing the text; apparently the publisher ruled out participation by scholars of Mexican descent because of concerns that they would be “biased” (quoting news reports). Here at 400 A St. SE we wonder how many of our colleagues born and raised in the United States have authored US history textbooks tainted by their “bias” as Americans.

The committee, convened by Ruben Cortez, the 2nd District representative to the Texas State Board of Education, released its report at a press conference on Tuesday, September 6. AHA members Gonzales and Zamora will also testify in front of the Texas State Board of Education on September 13. You can watch the hearing live online.

Fr. David Collins, SJ, history professor and chair of Georgetown University’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, is grappling with the legacy of Jesuit slave ownership in the nineteenth century and the sale of 272 enslaved men, women, and children to pay university debts. The recommendations made by the working group, influenced by activism from descendents, scholars of African-American history, and members of the Georgetown community, include renaming buildings, reaching out to descendents of enslaved people who built and maintained the university, and extending preferential status in admissions for descendents. Fr. Collins reflected on the legacy of slavery at Georgetown in a New York Times op-ed. In May 2016, AHA member Adam Rothman, also part of the Working Group, addressed this issue for AHA Today.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced 290 humanities projects in 15 categories that will receive $79 million in grant funds. AHA members received grants in the following categories: Next Generation PhDs, Public Scholar Program, Scholarly Editions and Translations, Collaborative Research, Institutes for Colleges and University Teachers, Institutes for School Teachers, Seminars for College Teachers, Seminars for School Teachers, State Humanities Councils Grants, Digital Humanities Implementation Grants, Exhibitions Grants, and Landmarks of American History.

In response to Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson's claim that documentaries can replace trained history educators, Amanda Seligman (history department chair, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) penned an op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the importance of true history education. She explains the necessity of teachers who can actively engage students in "[u]nderstanding multiple viewpoints, debating ideas without acrimony, connecting past and present, and collaborative analysis." By adapting to current debates and student needs, instructors "cultivate qualities that students may deploy at work, as parents, as neighbors, and as citizens in our democracy."

The August issue of The History Teacherspotlights the AHA's Tuning the History Major project, an "incredible and ambitious endeavor" to articulate the knowledge and skills that students acquire when they study history. The issue features articles from a range of faculty voices, representing the diversity of perspectives that the AHA coalesced during theTuning project. AHA K-12 members automatically receive a subscription to The History Teacher. All other members can subscribe or purchase individual issues at a discount. Learn more at MyAHA.

Jessica Millward (Associate Professor of History, University of California, Irvine) writes about the recent Department of Justice Report on police activities in Baltimore for The Conversation. Policing practices of the present, she concludes, echo policies and practices directed at Free Blacks in antebellum Baltimore.

Fifty-one historians were appointed as Members in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study for the 2016–17 academic year, including AHA members Hwisang Cho, Jennifer Davis, Thomas Dodman, Priscilla Roberts, Daniel Sherman, Nancy Sinkoff and Mark Tauger, as well as 18 international scholars from institutions as far away as China and Jordan. Find the full list on the IAS website.

A small group of historians are working to gain recognition for New York City's first community of Arab immigrants. First established in the 1880s, the neighborhood became a "thriving literary community." Read more from Gothamist.com.

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced six recipients of the Chronicling America Data Challenge, which challenges members of the public to produce creative web-based projects using data pulled from Chronicling America, the digital repository of historic U.S. newspapers. AHA members Lincoln Mullen, Amy Giroux, and Claudio Saunt placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively. AP U.S. History students at Sunapee High School (Sunapee, NH) received the K-12 student prize.

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress has announced its 2016 Kluge Fellows, who are awarded a generous stipend to conduct research using Library of Congress resources for a period of four to eleven months. Seven historians are among the winners: Christy Chapin, Benjamin Cowan, Luke Harlow, Margarita Karnysheva, Erik Linstrum, Alan Noonan, and Kristen Shedd.

On July 11, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution congressionally designating the George C. Marshall Museum and the George C. Marshall Research Library in Lexington, Va., as the National George C. Marshall Museum and Library. The Marshall Museum and Research Library began in 1953 and recently completed the seven-volume collection The Papers of George Catlett Marshall. The president of the George C. Marshall Foundation, which manages the Museum and Library, is AHA member Rob Havers.

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) offers a Postdoctoral Fellowship Program to recent PHD graduates to gain opportunities working with new research tools and educational technologies. Among the 2016 cohort of CLIR fellows are AHA members Heather Wacha (University of Wisconsin-Madison), who earned a PhD in Medieval History from the University of Iowa; and Jeffrey Wayno, a PhD in History from Columbia University.

AHA members Thomas C. Holt (James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Service Professor of American and African American History, University of Chicago) and Richard White (Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford University) were elected as members to the American Philosophical Society at the organization's Annual Spring Meeting in Philadelphia.

The AHA, as a member of Scholars at Risk, and also as a scholarly body concerned with and committed to protecting the working environment and rights of historians across the world, endorses in full the statement issued by Scholars at Risk calling for an ongoing dialogue about and the restoration of legal rights to academics in Turkey. The AHA has also joined more than 20 other scholarly societies and the American Council of Learned Societies in a letter expressing similar concerns and objections. These statements follow the AHA's letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the mistreatment of scholars (February 4, 2016). [Updated July 26, 2016]

During his trip to Melbourne to deliver the Bailyn Lecture at La Trobe University, Jim Grossman appeared on The Conversation with Jon Faine and Clare Wright on 774 ABC to discuss the legacy of war memorials.

In a Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed, Peter Onuf (Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia) responds to a congressional proposal to establish the 400 Years of African-American History Commission, concluding that African American history is American history.

After advocacy efforts from the AHA and other humanities organizations protesting a 69% cut to Fulbright-Hays funding, the US House of Representatives voted to maintain level funding for these international education programs. Read more from the National Coalition for History.

In April 2016, the AHA joined dozens of organizations to support the nomination of Dr. Carla Hayden as the newest Librarian of Congress. We are pleased to report that the Senate confirmed the nomination on July 13, 2016, in a vote of 74-18. Read more about the letter of support in our advocacy section.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria selected Jim Grossman to deliver the 2016 Bernard Baily Lecture on North American History. The title of his lecture was “Celebrate, Commemorate, Remember: The Work of Confederate Monuments in the United States.” The lecture was held at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Read more of Jim’s perspective on contemporary debates about confederate monuments in our AHA in the News page.

The American Council of Learned Societies has announced its 2016 cohort of Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows, several of which are historians. Fellows take up a two-year, full-time position at select nonprofit and government organizations. AHA members Carly Goodman and Veera Eliisa Mitzner received fellowships.

Shulamit S. Magnus has published A Woman's Life: Pauline Wengeroff and Memoirs of a Grandmother (Oxford: Littman Library, 2016).

Lois G. Schwoerer's book, Gun Culture in Early Modern England, was published in May 2016 by the University of Virginia Press.

Cambridge University Press published Iris Berger's new book, Women in Twentieth-Century Africa, which explores women's struggles to control their own marital, sexual, and economic lives and to gain a significant voice in local and national politics.

Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Princeton University.

Elaine Carey, AHA life member and past vice president of the Teaching Division, and a team at St. John's University were awarded nearly $150,000 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to develop curricula and resources to inspired inquiry-based learning by high school students using family history to connect their own histories with broader trends in the world. They will collaborate with the New York City Department of Education and the Queens Memory Project.

Everything has a history, including nativism in US politics and popular culture. In "Nativism, An American Perennial," Historian Alan Kraut (American Univ.) offers a broad summary for the policy community and general public encompassing 250 years.

The Online Journal of Rhode Island History published "Roger Williams: A Rhode Island and American Founder," by Alan E. Johnson, based on his book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience (Pittsburgh: Philosophia Publications, 2015).

Kent State University Press published Candice Shy Hopper's book, Lincoln's Generals' Wives, which examines in depth the influence of Jessie Fremont, Nelly McClellan, Ellen Sherman, and Julia on their husbands during the Civil War, and for the first time maps their travel during the war.

The inaugural Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize was awarded by the Massachusetts Historical Society to Mary Babson Fuhrer's Crisis of Community, a compelling story of small-town New England transformed between 1815 and 1848.

Palgrave-Macmillan published Margaret DeLacy's book, The Germ of an Idea: Contagionism, Religion, and Society in Britain, 1660-1730.

Want to avoid a lapse in membership benefits and keep your inbox free of renewal notices? The AHA now offers EZPay, an automatic membership renewal program. To enroll, simply click the EZPay checkbox when renewing your membership online. Your credit card payment information will be securely stored by PayPal (not in the AHA’s onsite records), and your credit card will be charged automatically on an annual basis. No need to remember to send in that check!

On April 30, notables in the entertainment and media world gathered at Denzel Washington's home in Los Angeles to raise $17 million for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

As part of the "Call to Duty" Centennial Capital Campaign, Kansas City philanthropists donated more than $5 million to enable construction of a new exhibition gallery and renovation of outdoor space for corporate and community events.

President Obama has nominated George Sanchez, Vice Dean for Diversity and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Southern California (USC), to the National Council on the Humanities. Sanchez is a scholar of Chicano history and immigration and also serves as Director of the Center for Diversity and Democracy at USC. He received an Equity Award from the AHA in 2010.

The 2016 cohort of Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellows includes many historians, including 13 active and former AHA members. ACLS Program Officer Rachel Bernard commented that "Fellows employ an array of methods to better understand our world, by, for example, conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Kenya, studying a modern multilingual Manchurian literary corpus, or delving into colonial-era archives in Chile and Argentina." Each fellow receives a a $30,000 stipend and up to $8,000 in research funds and university fees to assist in completing the dissertation.

David Trowbridge, associate professor of history at Marshall University, was recently named a 2016-2017 Public Engagement Fellow by the Whiting Foundation. The Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship is designed to "amplify the voices of scholars who take up the challenge of engaging the public, build a community of faculty dedicated to this form of service, and ultimately help to restore broader faith in the value of advanced work in the humanities." This is the first year the fellowship has been awarded.

Trowbridge will use fellowship funds to expand the functionality of Clio, a mobile app that guides users to historic and cultural sites using geolinked images, video, and text.

T.J. Stiles, a biographer and AHA member, received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History for Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (Alfred A. Knopf). The Pulitzer Prize Board described his work as "a rich and surprising new telling of the journey of the iconic American soldier whose death turns out not to have been the main point of his life."

The finalists in the History category included Brian Matthew Jordan for Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War (Liveright/Norton); Annie Jacobsen for The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency (Little, Brown & Company); and James M. Scott for Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor (W.W. Norton & Company).

18 historians (including seven AHA members) were named American Council of Learned Societies Fellows in the 2015-16 competition. "The 2016 ACLS Fellows represent the intellectual vitality of humanities and humanistic social science research today," said Matthew Goldfeder, director of fellowship programs. ACLS Fellowships allow scholars to spend six to twelve months researching and writing full-time.The following AHA members were honored:

Melinda Baldwin (Independent Scholar) for "In Referees We Trust? Scientific Legitimacy and the Rise of Peer Review in the Twentieth Century"Elizabeth A. Foster (Assistant Professor of History, Tufts University) for "Decolonizing Faith: Catholics and the End of French Empire in Sub-Saharan Africa"Christopher Grasso (Professor of History, College of William and Mary) for "Skepticism and American Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War"Robin Judd (Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University, Columbus) for "Love at the Zero Hour: Jewish Brides, Solider Husbands, and Strategies for Reconstruction, 1943-1955"Fabio Lanza (Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies, University of Arizona) for "Revolution In the Quotidian: A History of Maoist Urban Space, 1953-1983"Becky M. Nicolaides (Affiliated Research Scholar at the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, University of Southern California) for "On the Ground in Suburbia: A Chronicle of Social and Civic Transformation in Los Angeles Since 1945"Vanessa Ogle (Assistant Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania) for "Archipelago Capitalism: Tax Havens, Offshore Money, and the Shadow Economy, 1920s-1980s"

On March 23, 2016, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $21.1 million in support for 248 humanities projects in 44 states and the District of Columbia. "NEH grants bring the humanities to life for Americans by helping preserve valuable cultural resources, advancing research, and supporting films and exhibitions that communicate the lessons of history and culture to new audiences," according to NEH Chairman William D. Adams. 29 AHA members who received grants are named below. A complete state-by-state listing of the grantees is available here.

Philip L. Cantelon, co-founder and CEO of History Associates, an institutional member of the AHA, received a Founders Award from the National Council on Public History (NCPH). The award recognizes "individuals who played crucial roles in the Council's foundation and early success." Dr. Cantelon, a lifelong public history advocate and NCPH's first executive secretary, was presented the honor at the NCPH Awards Breakfast in Baltimore, Maryland on March 19, 2016.

On March 15, Columbia University awarded Mary Sarah Bilder, Deborah A. Rosen, and Andrew Lipman the prestigous Bancroft Prize for works in American history or diplomacy. Rosen and Lipman are AHA members.

Deborah A. Rosen (Lafayette College) won for Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood (Harvard University Press).

Andrew Lipman (Barnard College) won for The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast (Yale University Press).

Mary Sarah Bilder (Boston College Law School) won for Madison's Hand: Revisiting the Constitutional Convention (Harvard University Press).

Bette W. Oliver has announced the publication of her most recent book, "Provincial Patriot of the French Revolution: Francois Buzot, 1760-1794" (Lexington Books, 2015). It is the first biography written in English of this Girondin leader. The book covers his early life as a lawyer in Evreux, his defense of departmental interests, and his role as a leader in both the Constituent Assembly and the National Convention, as well as his last days as a fugitive from the government of which he had once been a part.

Oliver, with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, is an independent scholar specializing the late 18th-century French history.